Optical Damage Limits to Pulse Energy From Fibers

Author

Smith, Arlee V. ; Do, Binh T. ; Hadley, G. Ronald ; Farrow, Roger L.

Author_Institution

AS-Photonics LLC, Albuquerque, NM

Volume

15

Issue

1

fYear

2009

Firstpage

153

Lastpage

158

Abstract

The irradiances or fluences encountered in pulsed fiber lasers and amplifiers are sometimes high enough to destroy the fiber. The ultimate limit is set by the intrinsic damage threshold irradiance of doped silica. Other nonlinear processes such as self-focusing and stimulated Brillouin scattering are also important. We present here the results of our measurements of the damage threshold, and of our analysis of how self-focusing and Brillouin scattering influence the power limit.

Keywords

doping profiles; laser beam effects; optical fibre amplifiers; optical fibre testing; optical self-focusing; silicon compounds; stimulated Brillouin scattering; JkJk:SiO₂; damage threshold measurements; doped silica threshold irradiance; optical fibre amplifier; optical intrinsic damage limits; pulsed fiber lasers; self-focusing effect; stimulated Brillouin scattering; Brillouin scattering; Doped fiber amplifiers; Fiber lasers; Fiber nonlinear optics; Optical fiber amplifiers; Optical pulses; Optical scattering; Pulse amplifiers; Silicon compounds; Stimulated emission; Optical fiber amplifiers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1077-260X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSTQE.2008.2010331

Filename

4773313